The manuscript is a lettre en vers in the hand of Pierre Robert Le Cornier de Cideville, featuring the prefatory poem comprised of 30 lines. The author has recently arrived in Rouen and is enjoying the company of Formont. In urging Voltaire to share his latest works for review, the author references a copy of Zaïre currently in his possession. P.S. D525 and that of 23 March 1763 appear to be the only letters from Cideville to Voltaire hitherto printed. The verse of MS1 exactly reproduces that of MS2, but the prose shows several differences.

Voltaire writes that Marie-Anne de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise Du Deffand had proposed he buy an querry’s post with the duchesse du Maine, but that he did not feel ready for this employment and so was obliged to wait for another occasion to pay court to her. He instead recommends the Abbé de Linant for the role, whom he says lacks nothing but a fortune. He asks du Deffand to supprt de Linant, adding that if she does she will be nurturing his poetic talents.

Du Châtelet thanks Thiériot for the trouble he has taken in order that she may have the finest house in Paris and notes that she has received an answer from the crown prince about her Essai sur le feu. She writes that she hopes to inspire him with a taste for physics and make him give up his mania for verse because ‘one can very well be a mediocre physicist, but it is not permitted to be a bad poet.’ Du Châtelet writes that since Thiériot left her, she has developed an interest in lawsuits and then turns to literary and artistic news, mentioning among others Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, Francesco Algarotti, Roland Desalleurs, John Hervey, Jean-Henri Castéra, Jean-Nicolas Formont, and Jean-Philippe Rameau.